We had another great weekend, and I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with Squatch. Sunday I made Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake, Taco Dip, and Irish Soda Bread, while Squatch made his amazing French Chicken. I will post the chicken recipe in the future, when I am able to really get the recipe from the hubby.

I have to say, the cheesecake was almost a dud. I followed the recipe to a T, as I usually do, and after 65 minutes in the oven it was still quite loose and wobbly. So, I kept it in the oven for another 10 minutes, which did not help it much. I figured it was wet just from the cheesecake, so I took it out, hoping it would set up once it cooled down. Well, that did not happen. I turned the cake out, and realized the cake batter had not completely cooked; it was pretty much cake soup. At this point, I started freaking out, not sure what to do to fix it (I had flashbacks to similar situations on the British Baking Show, and imagined Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood admonishing me for screwing it up!). My MIL swooped in and came to the rescue. First, we popped the cake in the microwave for about 10 minutes – that did not really help things. So, she then cleaned the pan up, I put it back together, and she managed to get the cake back in, and we popped it into the oven for an additional 20 minutes. Now, the cake did not turn out as beautiful as I would have liked, and the layers didn’t work out, but it was cooked, it wasn’t burned, and it was edible.

My not very nice looking pineapple upside down cheesecake

Everyone enjoyed it, and my day was redeemed by the Soda Bread I made. I don’t know what it is, but my soda bread (from Gramma’s recipe she learned as a girl in Ireland) is always so moist and cakey, unlike the dry and crumbly stuff I find at the stores. The big difference in what I do versus what Gramma would do – I don’t count out 24 raisins to put in the loaf. Yes, Gramma would sit and count out the raisins she put in. I usually eyeball my raisins, and toss in an extra handful or two; I like my bread with LOTS of raisins!

Squatch made his French chicken for dinner, and man, was it good! He cut back on the amount of wine he put in the sauce, and it was so much better than when he first made it back in March. He did skimp on the carrots though – the recipe only calls for 2, and we definitely needed a lot more. This time, we sliced and heated up some French bread for a side, to sop up the creamy sauce. Little Man even approved! Next time, we’re going to add more carrots and some chicken breasts or legs, to have more variety aside from the thighs. Cooking with chicken thighs is becoming one of my new favourites – they pick up so much delicious flavour!

We also sat and did some chatting Saturday, about our plans for our future. Squatch wants to go to law school, so the plan is to get him studying and prepared to take the LSAT in the spring, with a hopefully admission to start next fall. He’s got a shortlist of schools that offer part-time students, and that are NOT in Chicago, and an idea of what type of law he would like to practice. Once he finds work, I’m going to enroll in University of Wisconsin’s course on parliamentary procedure; it prepares you to take and pass the National Association of Parliamentarians’ exam to become a Registered Parliamentarian. There will be a lot of studying on both of our parts coming up this fall and winter. My goal is to take the course, and the exam, by the end of 2019, so 2020 I can start fresh and do my own consulting as a way to bring in some extra income.

Exciting things happening over here!